


Gravity of You

by Blackberreh



Series: We are more than our bodies [3]
Category: Naruto
Genre: Adjusting to prosthetics, Drabbles, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Kagami just wants to help, Pre-Slash
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-02-17
Updated: 2019-02-17
Packaged: 2019-10-29 23:47:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,139
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17817836
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Blackberreh/pseuds/Blackberreh
Summary: Kagami just wants to be there for Tobirama, and help him through whatever lows and highs he experiences on his road to recovery.(A series of drabbles that take place after Fade Into the Night and Louder Than Thunder)





	1. Ink

**Author's Note:**

> ALRIGHT Here we go! this is going to be a series of loosely connected drabbles that deal with Tobirama and Kagami's relationship as Tobirama adjusts to his new leg - and before he leaves to track down Madara.
> 
> I've decided that the end goal for this series is going to be MadaTobiKaga. Hopefully it'll be a fun ride lmao
> 
> I'll be using prompts I got sent on my tumblr - for this first one, it's Ink!

Kagami eased open the door to the lab, feeling a stab of anxiety in his belly - he disliked entering uninvited, and when he’d knocked there had been no response from his former teacher. Worry that something had happened urged Kagami to open the door - just to peek inside and see if Tobirama was alright, and that he hadn’t somehow fallen and hit his head, or dissolved himself into a puddle of mush, or somehow turned himself into a frog-

Seeing the Senju slumped over his workbench had Kagami instantly bristling with alarm, but it faded after a second or two when he realised - Tobirama was just asleep.

It was very early in the morning after all. And Tobirama hardly ever retired to his bedroom if Kagami wasn’t there to remind him of the passage of time - and Kagami had only just returned from a week long mission. Who knew how long Tobirama had actually spent down here…

Kagami let out a quiet sigh and sidled up to the sleeping man, his eyes softening at the sight he made. Tobirama had fallen asleep on on some of his papers, and there was ink smeared through his hair and on his cheek. Under the harsh lighting of his personal lab, Tobirama looked almost deathly pale, and the dark circles under his eyes stood out starkly - they looked like they had gotten even worse since Kagami had left for his mission.

But the leg, propped up on a stand before the sleeping Senju, made of ashen white wood and carved with intricate, curving seals was a new addition. Kagami recognised it from the blueprints Tobirama had drawn up before Kagami left, and the Uchiha felt a swell of pride.

Had Tobirama really done it?

A small smile curled his lips, and Kagami reached out and gently shook Tobirama's shoulder. “Tobirama-sensei. You shouldn't sleep here, you'll ruin your back.”

Tobirama shifted slightly beneath his hand, but he remained lax, and Kagami felt another swell of pride - because Tobirama trusted him implicitly, even in his half asleep state. Kagami couldn't think of anyone else who held such a privilege. It made his insides bubble with a giddy sort of happiness - that was entirely inappropriate and most definitely needed to be reigned in tightly, lest he make a complete fool of himself.

“Kagami. You’re back.” His voice was a deep rumble, rough from sleep. Tobirama shifted his face a little - unsticking it from the paper he’d fallen asleep against and leaving even more ink splotches - and looked up at him with a tired, unfocused red eye. “Mmm. What time is it.”

“Three in the morning.” Kagami replied dryly, and urged Tobirama to sit up properly - which he did with a groan and arched his back in a stretch, to which Kagami most certainly  _ did not _ focus on the way his shirt slid up to reveal a sliver of skin. He focused entirely on gathering up the man’s scattered papers into a neat pile. “When was the last time you slept in an actual bed, sensei?”

Tobirama paused from rubbing a kink out of his neck and blinked tiredly. “... What day is it?”

Kagami shot him an exasperated, worried glance and bit back a sigh. “Sensei, you know this - holing up in here - it isn’t  _ healthy _ . Do I need to ask Lord Hokage to permanently assign me to be your keeper? Is that what you want? Hiruzen would do it, too.”

At least Tobirama looked contrite at his words, even if let out a quiet snort. He averted his gaze, and those red eyes settled on the prosthetic on the table.

Kagami followed his gaze, and found himself smiling. “You did it?”

The Senju let out a low hum and reached out to trace a finger over one of the seals. It sparked blue, the seal matrix bright and visible for a few moments, before it faded to nothing, and Kagami sucked in a breath when he saw Tobirama smile. A triumphant, almost savage smile.

Tobirama’s smiles were a rare thing to witness. And ever since he’d lost his leg, they’d become virtually non-existent. 

This was the first time Kagami had seen him smile since the incident. It made his stomach flip and his heart stutter, because even like this - even with ink staining his face and hair and fingers, even looking like he hadn’t had a restful moment in days, even looking like he hadn’t eaten a good hearty meal in  _ weeks _ \- 

Tobirama looked beautiful.

Kagami had to look away in an attempt to steady his now racing heart, and after a moment - when he felt he was back under control - he turned back to Tobirama with a bright grin. “This is - this is  _ great _ , sensei! I knew you’d be able to do it. You’re just - you’re absolutely  _ brilliant _ .”

Tobirama let out a faint scoff at his words, but then he looked at Kagami with soft eyes that - once again - had Kagami’s breath catching in his throat. “I would like to… Thank you, Kagami. For all of your help. You have made these months… Tolerable.”

Kagami swallowed a sudden lump in his throat and found that he couldn’t look away. Heat began to suffuse his cheeks and he shifted his weight from one foot to the other, and managed to get out somewhat steadily, “I… I just want to help you, Tobirama-sensei. It’s the least I can do for you, for everything you have done for us.”

Tobirama’s eyes crinkled a little as he smiled again - just a small one, just the barest curving of his lips, and after a moment he hummed and pushed his chair away from the bench. “Help me too my room? I believe it’s time for me to get some proper sleep. Testing the prosthetic can wait until tomorrow.”

“I - o-of course.” Kagami stuttered and flailed a little, before moving to help Tobirama to his unsteady feet. There was a crutch against the nearby wall - just a single one, Tobirama had yet to fully adjust, but he was able to move around well enough on his own now. But this… This was proof, if anything, of the trust that Tobirama held in Kagami. That he had started asking for help instead of trying on his own - and it made Kagami feel warm and fuzzy inside. “Let’s go then, sensei.”


	2. Secrets

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Prompt from pearlescentpearl on tumblr~
> 
> no beta we die like men

Kagami had known for a long time now that Tobirama had a secret.

The man was entitled to his secrets of course - Kagami had no right to them. He was simply a former student - a maybe friend, now - and he had no right to pry. But this…

It wasn’t an ordinary secret. It had nothing to do with Tobirama’s research, or something political in regards to the village, or even something embarrassingly personal. No, the secret had to do with the circumstances around Tobirama’s survival, and the incident in which he’d lost the use of his leg.

By all rights, Tobirama should not have survived. He had been outnumbered, low on chakra, on his own - acting as a diversion so Kagami and his other teammates could get away. But in the end… he survived. Badly injured, on the verge of death, but he was found alive and unconscious outside the village gates.

And he had apparently dragged himself there.

Judging by the state of his injuries, it was… hard to believe. But no-one had questioned it. Tobirama Senju, the Second Hokage, the White Demon, was a monster on the battlefield. His speed was practically unmatched, his strength and chakra reserves near on par with his late brother’s. So it wasn’t too hard to believe that he could survive a death match and drag his broken body back to the village

But Kagami had been spending a lot of time with Tobirama. He’d seen him at his lowest, when he refused to leave his bed for any reason, when he refused to eat to keep up his strength. He’d also seen him at his best, when he made a breakthrough in his research, when he finally perfected the seals for his new leg, and when he managed his first steps without the aid of crutches.

Kagami thought that after everything, he could read Tobirama Senju better than anyone. And he could see the way his eyes hardened whenever the _incident_ was mentioned, the way his lips thinned ever so slightly. The scar that trailed from his cheek to the corner of his lips seemed stark against his pale skin as it was pulled, and the way he shifted, pulling weight off of his amputated leg was telling. Kagami was the only one to see it, the only one truly watching Tobirama - because really, he was _always_ watching Tobirama. In the beginning, he’d attributed it to the trauma, the memory of his near death and receiving those injuries. But in any other situation when it came to his scars, to the remains of his leg, Tobirama seemed entirely unconcerned.

So Kagami began to think - those reactions maybe didn’t have anything to do with trauma. He began to think that maybe… something else had happened during that fight other than a near death experience. It _was_ possible that Tobirama had fended off his attackers, healed the worst of his injuries, and dragged himself back to Konoha. Tobirama was strong - the strongest Shinobi Kagami knew.

But surely not even he could manage all of that on his own.

Kagami wanted to ask about it. He’d brought it up once, the second month Tobirama had been out of the hospital, but when the Senju had dismissed his concerns, he’d dropped it.

He decided he would respect Tobirama’s wishes to keep the truth to himself, even if it did sting a bit because he thought that he’d earned Tobirama’s trust. He wouldn’t bring it up again.

But then one day, as Kagami was sorting through Tobirama’s notes while the Senju was testing the strength of his new prosthetic with a walk through the village (something Kagami was excited about because he was _finally_ getting out of the house, and he had offered to come with but Tobirama had declined and said he wished to do it by himself. Which was fine, because Kagami rarely left his side unless he had a mission; Tobirama needed his space as well. It was fine.) Kagami came across something… interesting.

A sheet of paper, in amongst Tobirama’s research notes. By itself, a sheet of paper isn’t anything suspicious, but it was what was written on the paper that piqued the Uchiha’s interest.

It was a list of the different nations. Some were crossed out, a few were circled. Underneath that were sentences of short descriptions with a date before each one of them - staring from a week after Tobirama had left the hospital. ‘A man fitting given description was seen in Takigakure’ ‘Source said that meeting with a Kiri clan ended with casualties’ ‘Was seen at a tavern in an outskirts town nearby Amegakure in a disagreement with local shinobi - no casualties’ - and as Kagami read more, the more his curiosity and confusion grew.

As he put that sheet aside and gathered up the other papers, Kagami located a few others that held information along a similar vein, and Kagami began to realise that this - whoever it was Tobirama had written about - sounded… oddly familiar. Described with a mane of black hair, black eyes, angular features, dark robes, sometimes seen with red armor and a wide variety of weapons - and… a gunbai.

Kagami’s eyes narrowed.

After a long moment, he gathered up the papers and slotted them together with Tobirama’s research notes. As he continued to tidy up, his mind began to turn in circles.

Why in the name of the Sage would Tobirama be searching for _Madara Uchiha_ ? A man who was - by all rights - _dead_?

It could be anyone really, but Kagami had a feeling that it _was_ Madara. Or at least some other rogue Uchiha.

And then, as he started towards the lab door because he heard the front door opening and Tobirama’s voice call out to him - he froze, and things just… slotted into place.

The dates, starting from the week after the hospital. That was it. That had to be it.

Something had happened during the incident involving those Kumo shinobi. Something that had to have involved Madara Uchiha.

Kagami needed to get to the bottom of this, because if he knew Tobirama - and by the sage, _he did_ \- then the man would stop at nothing until he’d found the man he was looking for. And who the hell knew what would come of that.

Of course - Kagami could be completely wrong and he was just jumping to conclusions.

With a hum, Kagami ascended the stairs to the upper level, and greeted Tobirama with a smile.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Have any prompts or ideas you wanna see with these two? Send me them on tumblr! http://blackberreh-art.tumblr.com/

**Author's Note:**

> Have any prompts or ideas you wanna see with these two? Send me them on tumblr! http://blackberreh-art.tumblr.com/


End file.
